Ben Kane's Photo Re-Touch



     I retouched the photo of Ben Kane. It was an old photo and I felt that all of the holes and scratches made it hard to concentrate on old Ben's features. I like sepia toning so I added sepia to the photo. I think it adds a level to the photo to help see the differences in light and dark. One thing I really screwed up on was his coat. Towards the end of his leeves are supposed to be these triangular shaped lines. I thought they were scratches at first and had them removed. They should be there. This was a fancy coat and he is wearing a fancy shirt. When I blew the picture up and cleaned it up some, I could see details of his shirt that you can't otherwise see. It's a pullover shirt with a button front. It buttons three quarters of the way down, so it must be a pullover shirt. There are three buttons at the bottom of his bow tie. There is some fancy lace design in his shirt that can be made out in places. I don't know what that loop is off of his bow tie, but it's meant to be there. I enhanced it a bit and it looks like a bit of cord. Carol told me that she got this from Florence Kane Busse and that this image was a tin type.

Benjamin Charles Kane & Sarah Jane Snow

Here are my third great grandparents. On the left is Benjamin Charles Kane. He was born in 1832 in Tennessee. Some say he was born in Kentucky, but we believe it to be Tennessee. These photos were graciously provided to me by cousin Carol Long from Illinois. Supposedly Ben took this photo in haste as he was preparing for the Civil War and  forgot the price tag on the hat. Ben Kane died in July 1885 and is buried in the Whig Cemetery outside of Platteville, Wisconsin. On the right is Sarah Jane Snow. She was born in Massachusetts, some say New York, in May of 1938. It is said that she died on December 16th, 1912, but I don't believe that. I have seen no proof of her death and that date is the day her son George Winthrop Kane died. I have proof of his death. I do not know where Sarah Jane is buried. This is one of my top priorities. If anyone has any information on her, please contact me here in the comments. One other thing that I would really like to know is who that is in the picture around her neck? I think it's her father, Winthrop Snow, but it may be Ben Kane or her second husband, John B. Cardy. I don't think it looks like either husband which leads me to believe it may be her father whom I've never seen a photo of. I would appreciate any info on her parents too. I have them totally disappearing off of the radar after 1885. I would also like to have more info on Benjamin's family. I know he had three other siblings, two brothers and a sister. The sister married a Coates. The one brother owned a mine and was supposedly killed in a cave in, and the other, Francis (Frank) got married and was a carpenter around the Potosi area up until 1910. Ben's parents were Bartlett Kane (spelled Cain) and a woman named Lydia. I would like to know who this Lydia was. Any information on this family line would be appreciated. 

Kane brothers with their mother in the 1890's

The above photo was graciously sent to me by Carol Long. She is descended from Edward Jefferson Kane. The above photo is of the Kane brothers taken sometime in the 1890's with their mother. In the back row, from left to right are James Henry Kane, Edward Jefferson Kane, Benjamin Alvin Kane, and Walter Kane. In the front row, from left to right are George Winthrop Kane, Sarah Jane Snow, their mother, Charles Vernon Kane, and Harvey Kane. Their two sisters are not in this photo. The oldest was passed away by this time as was their father. Their mother would have been married to John B. Cardy by this time. My 2nd great grandfather is James Henry Kane. My wife's 2nd great grandfather is George Winthrop Kane. Carol Long is descended from Edward Jefferson Kane. If anyone has any information on this family, please contact me here. One of the things that I am hoping to learn from someone is when Sarah Jane died and where she is buried. Her date of death is listed as December 16th, 1912 on most people's family trees. However, that is the day that her son George Winthrop passed away, and I have his date of death verified. I don't have a stitch of evidence on her death.

UPDATE: I see I haven't updated this in some time. I have since found evidence of Sarah Jane's death. She indeed did die on December 16th, 1912 of chronic bronchitis and myocarditis; contributing cause was inactivity. However, she did not die at Platteville as others had written, but instead died at Marshfield, Wisconsin, where her son Harvey was living at the time. In a small death notice that I discovered, it said that she had lived at Cumberland previously. That was where her son Walter was living at this time. So, I believe that after her husband died in the fall, she moved to Walter's home, then for some unknown reason, moved in with Harvey, where she died. It says her remains were taken to Platteville for burial, but it does not say where. Is she beside her husband at the Whig Cemetery? Is she beside her parents wherever they may be buried?

 

Got word from Kane cousin, Janet Hamilton, that a friend of hers went to Madison and found the following information there regarding Sarah.

Sara J. Cardy born May 1838 in Philadelphia, and died December 16, 1912 at Marshfield, Wisconsin, age 73 yrs, 8 months.

Father was W. Snow and Mother was Abigail Gill, both born in Philadephia. Infoprmant was Harvey Kane, Marshfield. Cause of death was chronic bronchitis and myocarditis; contributing cause was inactivity. Sara was buried at Platteville.

Reference Reel 1912, 71N, #89 Wood County, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Madison, Wisconsin.

Being born in Philadelphia is contrary to all other accounts that we have of her place of birth. She mainly gives Massachusetts as her place of birth, and I have seen New York given as well. We know her mother is Abigail Goodale, and I can see how it can be mistakenly written down as Gill. The rest of the information appears correct. Her son Harvey was living in Marshfield at the time. Her husband, John Cardy died earlier in 1912 and her son George W. died a year earlier. It states that she is buried in the Platteville Cemetery, but it doesn't mention which one, and I cannot find her in either Hillside or Greenwood's records.

Freeing up "unknown space" on my hard drive.

Last February, I bought a 320 GB hard drive to add to my computer. My main drive was 70 GB, but it was filling up fast with pictures and music. I also upgraded my XP machine to Vista Home Premium. I labeled my second Hard Drive X: (for extra). I pointed everything to my X drive. I told system restore and my backup to put everything there. This was the start of my problem which culminated here today. Over time, more and more of my hard drive was getting gobbled up. I was putting more and more photos, videos, and music on there too. What I didn't realize was that space was being gobbled up faster than what should have been. Here the other day, I finally dipped below 100 GB of free space. I started to look through everything that I had to see what I could delete. This is when I noticed that everything that I could see only totaled about 45 GB. Now, I have my virtual memory and IE Explorer cache using space on my X drive too, and I'm well aware that they gobble up some space. However, I was looking at a discrepancy of about 150 GB. I did some research into this and didn't find very good answers. I did the whole Shadow Copy route, but that proved unfruitful because my shadow copies were now being stored on my X drive, and no matter what syntax I was using, it wasn't recognizing any shadow copies on that drive, so it wouldn't delete them. I used the Windows Disk Cleanup utility and that proved fruitless as well. What I had to do was follow the procedures given on this link: CLICK HERE. I shut off disk backup and system restore first, then I rebooted. Once rebooted, I right clicked on my X drive and followed the procedures given on the above link. Once I followed those procedures for gaining full access over everything, my folder labeled OEM went from O bytes to about 150 GB. It contained two folders that were labeled backup and had some dates behind that. I deleted them and recovered my lost space. I'm not sure which combination allowed me to be able to see the files and to have access to delete them, but I know it wasn't the Shadow Copy route or the Disk Utility route. I had to do all that mumbo jumbo given on the link above and then shut my backup and system restore stuff off. I had to reboot. After right clicking on my X drive in the My Computer screen, I did the stuff from that link I just gave and only then was I able to find and see the files that I needed to delete. Since I now had full control, I could delete them easily and I freed up over 150 GB of space. If you find that you're having difficulty freeing up your "unknown space", try the confusing, but effective instructions from that link and hopefully you'll be able to free up your space as well.

William Anderson Kaump

     William Anderson Kaump was born November 17th, 1839 near Big Patch, Wisconsin. His parents were John W. Kaump and Phebe Flynn. He served as a corporal in Company H of the 25th Wisconsin Regiment during the Civil War. He married Clarissa Druen on October 5th, 1865 in Wisconsin. He was a miner for most of his life. He also spent some time out in Nebraska and was farming out there, but returned to Wisconsin where he spent the rest of his life. In his later years, he had a small acreage on the southeast side of Cuba City. This is where he died. His final occupation; the one listed on his death certificate, was that of a gardener. He was also a beekeeper in his later years. The photo above is taken at a beekeepers convention that was held in southwest Wisconsin. More information on the photo is below. William A. Kaump died on Christmas Day, 1895. He is buried at the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery at Cuba City, Wisconsin.


His wife died on June 1st, 1910 at Amherst, Wisconsin, where she was staying with her daughter Eva Heffernan. Their children were; Ida Mae Kaump, William Henry Kaump, George Samuel Kaump, Wilfred Emmanuel Kaump, Mary Ellen Kaump, and Eva Pearl Kaump.

     William Kaump would be my third great grandfather. My maternal grandfather is William Kane. His father was Fred Kane, son of James Kane and Ida Kaump; Ida Kaump being William's eldest daughter.


Below is the source photo and information that I have for the above photo:

Brake Headache

I have been noticing some un-normal things going on with the brakes in Hercules. I first noticed squeaking every time I pressed on the brakes. I I took it to the folks who would do tire work for me and they said that I had really good brakes. I chalked it up to road dirt and grime. Then I started noticing a vibration in the pedal when the brakes were applied. I again took it in to be looked at and was told that the brakes were fine. They looked at me like I was complaining just to complain. Then started the grinding noise from the back. I jacked it up myself and took the tire off and lo and behold, the pad on the passenger side was 99.9%. It was almost metal on metal. The squeaker was worn clean off. The upside was that the rotor was still good. There was just barely enough pad that it protected the rotor enough that I could reuse it. I am tired of people not working on my vehicles correctly. I used to do my own brakes all the time, especially disc brakes. I'm not comfortable doing my own drum brakes without someone's help, but disc are a cinch. I tore into it and the first thing I noticed was how hard it was to take the bolts off. That's because they're all Loctited on. I have never used Loctite on brake calipers. I don't care if it's a Geo Prism or a 1 ton truck, if you tighten your bolts good enough, odds are, they'll stay put. I even find myself in the camp of people who use anti-seize on the bolts. I also pull the bleeders and use a very thin layer of anti-seize on them too. I've never had trouble with it in all of my years, even on ABS systems. When I got to the other side of the truck, I noticed the pads had over half left. Upon closer inspection, the brakes were seized in the holders and hadn't worked in some time. I had to pound the piss out of them to get them out of the holders. Since they hadn't been working, rust had built up worse on that caliper vs. the other side and the metal was starting to corrode and rot. What a mess. I figured I would go get the parts and save myself a lot of money. I attaked the problem "old school" style. I bought all the components separately. I saw complete caliper kits available for $70, but I figured the calipers were good. The rubbers looked good on them and there wasn't any sign of fluid anywhere on them, so they should have been re-usable. However, the corrosion that had accumulated on the non-working brake unit proved too much for the bleeder as it was corroded beyond saving. Here's a breakdown of the job and expense:

 Rear Brake Job




Brake Pads - $23

Caliper Hardware Kit – $17

New Bleeders - $4

New Caliper Slide Pins - $9

Impact Socket, T55 - $5.50

2 Qts. Brake Fluid – $8.50

New Caliper and bracket* - $62.00



Total - $129



This doesn’t include 3 trips to West Union for various parts and tools, two trips to Arlington to have calipers put in a vise and bolts broke loose (thank you Uncle Mike), nor the several drill bits that I broke trying to drill out the bleeder valve. My feet were frozen, I was chilled to the bone, and I inhaled more rust, salt, and brake dust than I care to have inhaled. It took nearly 2 ½ days of messing around, and a ton of frustration. I guess in the end, I’m $10 ahead because completely loaded calipers with all new hardware, pads, bolts, etc, are $70 a piece plus tax. That would have been $140 worth of parts, I guess I still would have had to have bought the brake fluid, so I’m like $20 ahead, but I could have had this job done in one trip, saved several drill bits, and had it done in a couple of hours. When it comes time to do the front ones, I’m going to buy the complete caliper sets and be done with it!



* I got the bleeder on the passenger side caliper out fairly easily. I planned on replacing them anyways. The driver’s side one was seized in there and I could not get it out. It didn’t even snap off. It disintegrated. I tried to drill it out and when I got to good steel, it worked the hell out of my drill bits and snapped a few. The threads were seized so bad that I couldn’t get the threads to clean out. I ruined it and had to buy a new caliper. They didn’t have just the caliper, so I had to buy a caliper with a new holder bracket. It was only $7 more than the caliper alone would have cost me.

Two lessons were learned. First, do everything that you possibly can yourself. In other words, don't trust anyone to check your brakes for you. If you can do it yourself, then do it yourself. It isn't their life on the line in they're wrong. It's yours. Secondly, if the calipers are corroded, it's easier to buy complete caliper kits that can be slapped on by simply removing two 18MM bolts and a brake line and reversing the procedure followed by bleeding the system. You'll save yourself a lot of time and hassle. 

Obituary – Mrs. T. J. Durnan (genealogy)

“How pleasing in the sight of God is the death of one of his saints.” Text chosen by the Rev. T.J. Enzler of Oelwein in conducting the funeral services of Mrs. T. J. Durnan, during the absence of her pastor, Rev. Halpin.
The words bespeak the life and death of Mrs. T. J. Durnan, formerly Annie Schmit. Born April 13, 1875, and who resigned her soul unto her maker on June 12, 1929.
She was united in marriage to Thos. J. Durnan on August 17, 1904. To this union were born four children; Philip, James, Harry and Nellie. She leaves to mourn these four children, her husband, four brothers and four sisters.
Although her body is consigned to the grave, and her soul to the life everlasting; the influence which her life has cast, was marked by the many friends, that filled to its doors, the Immaculate Conception church at Fairbank on Friday June 14, to pay their last tribute of respect and love.
She was always a silent admirer of children and was loved by all children with whom she came in contact. During her last illness some of her most enjoyable moments were those when the children came to see her. Many of whom, could not see her due to her failing strength.
In her severe sufferings, she would often calm herself in speaking of the children of her neighborhood and of times pleasantly spent in her home; attributes to her name of “True Home Mother.”
Boys always found a welcome in her home and were understood by her as an example to many of us.
It was her wish to be attended by her relatives during her last severe illness; which was faithfully carried out by her own family, especially; also the families of her brothers and sisters.
During the terrible pain, which the dreaded disease of cancer carries with it; she was ever comforted by her belief in the teachings of the Catholic church, of which she was a faithful member from infancy. During attacks of the most severe pain, she would breathe the words: “Jesus crucified; have mercy on me.” In these words she always found strength to bear her pain.
She was brought from St. Mary’s hospital at Rochester on Feb. 11, where she had an operation on Jan. 14, to the home of her brother, A. J. Schmit at Oran, because blockaded roads made it impossible to be taken to her home, and she was never able to be moved again.
She was never a day without seeing some of her family, and when the nights became wakeful, it was her wish to be attended by one of her immediate family, and one other relative, who watched continuously through the long night hours in token of sincere affection.
It had always been her wish that her deathbed would be attended by her husband and four children; also by her four brothers and four sisters (between whom she was the connecting link). On Friday June 7, she realized that her soul was soon to take its flight to her God. She asked that she might have the last rights of her religion, which she was granted by Rev. T. J. Enzler. Then after a last farewell to her family, she was filled with a holy longing to meet her creator.
Still she lingered in this longing for several days, in the meantime, two brothers from a distance came home. She was able to take her last farewell with them. During all of this her own family stayed constantly with her and on Tuesday evening, prayed with her while her soul peacefully departed to its eternal home.
She was of a quiet disposition but silently won the admiration of all who came in contact with her, especially those who were in religious or medical attendance during the last weeks of her sufferings.
Her great appreciation for the slightest act done for her will never be forgotten by those who cared for her, and the ready smile with which she greeted all who attended to her was a mark of her appreciation.
The surviving brothers and sisters are; Peter P. Schmit, New Richmond, Wis.; Anthony J. Schmit of Oran; John M. Schmit, Motley, Minn.; Philip F. Schmit of Fairbank; Teresa B. Hickory; Katie B. Kane; Misses Mary and Lizzie Schmit of Oran. Besides these she leaves many nephews and nieces to whom she was very dear; also other relatives and friends.
Relatives who attended the funeral were Mr. Lawrence Testin and family, Mrs. Kate Testin and family of Joliet, Ill,; J. J. Durnan and wife, also J. P. Durnan and daughter of Fulda, Minn,; Peter Graff of Akron, Ia.; Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Brennan and son of Waterloo.
Transcribed by Eric E. Durnan, the obituary of Anna Schmit Durnan, wife of Thomas J. Durnan taken from the Oelwein Daily Register, Monday, June 24th, 1929 edition.